1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a computer inputting technology, a human interface technology, and a sight processing technology, and, in particular, to a technology of measuring a three-dimensional shape of an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to measure a three-dimensional shape of an object (subject) has been demanded in various fields such as survey of land/building, production of CAD model, display of products/goods in on-line shopping, and so forth. As one of such three-dimensional shape measuring methods, there is a method by which a pattern light is irradiated/projected onto an object, a picture of distortion occurring in the pattern on the object is taken, and, thus, shape measurement is performed.
Specifically, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-149727 discloses to take a picture of a subject by a camera which can move freely on a moving apparatus on which the camera is mounted, and thereby, to measure a shape of the subject even when the subject has a surface having high reflectance. Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-79029 discloses to divide each of a plurality of sets of image data taken by a plurality of cameras into small regions, to combine three-dimensional information obtained from the respective small regions, and, thus, to detect three-dimensional information of the subject.
However, the above-mentioned technique requires the moving apparatus or plurality of cameras. Thereby, the apparatus becomes larger, and cannot be carried easily. Thus, the apparatus is not convenient. Furthermore, high manufacturing costs are needed for such apparatuses. Furthermore, depending on the actual arrangement of the moving apparatus or plurality of cameras, characteristics of a subject for which the shape thereof can be properly measured may be limited.